John Wheatley Award Talk: Experimental magnetism research in Dhaka, Hanoi and Uppsala

Promoting basic science in developing countries is the aim of the International Science Program at Uppsala University, Sweden. This program, that some years ago celebrated its 50th anniversary, has been the main supporting agency of my more than 30 years of collaboration with research groups in Dhaka at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology and the Atomic Energy Commission, and research groups in Hanoi at the Vietnamese Academy of Science. Our common research on magnetism and magnetic materials has been built upon: (i) Longer visits (about half of their total PhD studies) by PhD students from Hanoi and Dhaka at Uppsala University that ends by PhD exams from their home Universities; (ii) short time visits (up to 2months) by senior scientists to Uppsala for discussions and measurements; (iii) short visits by me and colleagues from Uppsala in Hanoi and Dhaka for discussions, workshops and conferences; (iv) mutual visits of scientists from Bangladesh and Vietnam to each other and neighboring countries (mostly India) for specific experiments and learning new methods and (v) some support for purchase of research equipment. The work with Dhaka and Hanoi and other countries has resulted in: development of internationally competitive research groups in Hanoi and Dhaka that independently publish in international journals, several PhDs that continue their work at the home institutes, numerous common publications in international scientific journals and not the least lasting professional and personal connections between scientists in Bangladesh, Vietnam, Thailand, Eritrea, India and Sweden.